You may know of Sword + Fern (811 E Burnside #114) as the outpost for Emily Baker's line of jewelry by the same name, but in a couple weeks she's unveiling an expansion of the operation, called the New World Apothecary. If you're ready to take your toiletries beyond the Tom's of Maine-level of neo-hippie shit (which I mean in a purely complimentary sense), get with the "wildcrafting" program. New World's merch covers "locally made, powerful healing herbal remedies, including lip balm, salves, tinctures, flower essences, natural parfums, local honey, pure beeswax candles, cosmetics by Portland Black Lipstick Co., and organic and sustainably wildcrafted teas and incenses sold by the ounce and beautifully packaged for gift giving," writes Baker. The official launch is December 10 (6-9 pm), when herbalist Sarai Black will host a tasting of her herbal medicinal tinctures and berry cordials along with local small-batch stinging nettle chocolate truffles and salted caramel sauce. For an added dose of woo-woo, you can get your handwriting analyzed or your tarot cards read too. It's easy to geek out hard on this kind of thing on several fronts: It's like a cross between beauty products and cooking and natural science, and good old nerd-tastic magic. Go on and pretend you are visiting Daigon Alley's Slug & Jiggers under cloak of night for powdered unicorn horn to dry up that cold sore. It's basically the same thing.

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Nettles: awesome with chocolate, apparently

You can also get a jump on it on First Friday, when they will be hosting an art opening for a collaborative art show called "Fieldguided," devoted to insects, including "specimens, drawings, soundscapes, and field observations," plus woodwork by Dan Anderson and a compilation book release by Publication Studio. It was pulled together by Lisa Schonberg, who you might also remember from a little band called Explode Into Colors, and is going down on Friday Dec 3 from 6-10 pm. Bugs and potions not your thing? There are literally hundreds of other purchasing suggestions over here.